A worthy homage to the classic film from a more innocent time, The Breakfast Club, realized by gifted director Matthew Spradlin. Beautifully illustrating the consequences of cliques, bullying, and the mysterious teenage aversion to basic human decency, this is a powerfully relevant film for our time. With growing neurological evidence that the teenage brain is radically different from the mature mind, i.e., lacking compassion, empathy, and the capacity to respect others, such a film as this was long overdue. Starring an exciting cast of fresh young faces and featuring a most welcome Judd Nelson as the principal, the acting is uniformly superb. Director Spradlin creates an atmosphere of disturbing dread in which the brilliant script allows the characters to develop and the tightly woven plot to play out. While there are shocks and thrills, it is much more than a conventional horror film. The overwhelming terror is found in the intractability of these young people and the unholy hatred they have for authority. Self-destructive in their rejection of civilized society and common sense, these are young people enslaved to peer pressure that simply reflects their own intense immaturity. The insights into the developing human psyche and the danger of indulging young people during a time when they most need strict discipline are extraordinary. The film successfully blends horror, wit, and a profound understanding of immature humanity while at the same time being very entertaining. An ambitious and ultimately enlightening bit of cinema that should be seen by every parent and authority figure who must navigate safely the dark jungle of primitive emotion, undeveloped intelligence, and defiant opposition known as adolescence.

Watch this if...you enjoy murder-mystery films with some gore and teenage drama mixed in.Acting/Casting: 5.5* - The acting is solid in some of the cast (Browder, Duke) and questionable and bad in some of the others (Edwards), which results in an average score to me. I've seen much worse in this genre and in this case it doesn't take away from the movie at all.Directing/Cinematography/Technical: 6* - I will admit that the movie was confusing at times, but it had a pretty nice pace to it. It keeps the viewer engaged and the lighting and gore is done fairly well. A pretty good job done by Matthew Spradlin and his crew.Plot/Characters: 4.5* - A group of students get locked in a library for detention and people begin to die after the group solicit ancient ghosts. This is a murder/mystery type story that isn't extremely well put together and at many points is hard to follow and hard to believe.Entertainment Value: 5.5* - It was a fairly entertaining watch for a slow Sunday afternoon, but I don't think I will be watching the movie again. I also wouldn't tell anyone to go out of their way to see it, but it is an okay film.My Score: 5.5+6+4.5+5.5 = 21.5/4 = 5.375 Email your thoughts to [email protected]

The good things about this movie:-some of the shots were very stylized which results in some moments worthy of screen shots. -It had some funny moments, and the acting wasn't half bad. -It did at times remind me of other films in that satirical way, which was amusing.The bad parts:-The explanation of how the events went down doesn't make sense and felt forced as if the writer had ideas for how the story would go, but couldn't really make it fit together in a realistic or intelligent way. -The ending half haphazardly tries to put all the ducks in a row, and didn't match the pace of the rest of the film. -The ghost scares were completely ridiculous in a 70s cartoony sorta way, that once again felt out of nowhere in how absurd they were. -There were poorly done CGI cockroaches all through out the film, which are never explained, which could have helped explain some of the unbelievable moments if they were.I'd typically give a film like this a 5/10, but since I spent so much time analyzing it, I feel like I should give it a 6. But then again, a 6 means I can recommended it to at least some people for a one time watch, and I'm unsure if I could go that far since it's such a sloppy teen film. I guess I recommend it to people who don't require a cohesive storyline. Just don't expect anything of value besides something to argue over with your easily amused friends who loved it. And some tits... don't forgot stereotypical straight male horror fans, there are tits. I know you don't think it's a good horror film without some girl degrading herself for your amusement. I suggest porn, but hey, the film industry keeps giving you guys what you want. Hope you're happy, because even as someone who is attracted to women, I don't require "whores to be punished" in all my horror film favorites, as films like Cabin in The Woods satires.I have also posted an explanation of the ending for people who couldn't follow the jumbled wrap up, in the forum thread "Ending Spoilers Wanted." I try to explain it as best I can, but in the end, much is left for the audience to try to figure-out/argue-over until it's sequel is released. And who knows if that will give a decent explanation for what happened or if it will just make it even more absurd.

"Bad Kids Go To Hell" is Director Matthew Spradlin's dark, twisted homage to 80's teen movies, as only Americana contemporary film can. Co- written with Barry Wernick, the story follows a group of teens from the complete color wheel of personality mind-f**ked. It is an obvious sinister retelling, or new vision, on Hughes "Breakfast Club" where teens personal, and social turmoil's are exposed and forced into resolution. Only in "Bad Kids Go To Hell" the forced realization comes at the hands of one hell of a twisted, sinister story. The plot follows this group of elitist offspring serving detention for, well-you know- being a teen with too much privilege, without supervision, just trying to deal with school and life sh*t! Cause hey, that sh*t is hard-we all have been there! The film stars Amanda Alch, Chanel Ryan, Marc Donato, Augie Duke, Roger Edwards, Ali Faulkner, Cameron Deane Stewart, Ben Browder and Judd Nelson. The official plot goes like this: Six prep school kids from Crestview Academy, home to the spoiled offspring of society's elite, find themselves stuck in detention on a frightfully dark and stormy Saturday afternoon. During their 8-hour detention, each of the six kids falls victim to a horrible "accident" until only one of them remains. I am not going into detail as to the depth of how or why they fall victim as to not give away any spoilers. Just my review and thoughts on the movie.Everything about "Bad Kids Go To Hell" is almost perfect in it's utilization of nostalgia it tries to capture, with all the tribute images and backdrops that so epically scream "John Hughes". From the library, the character traits of the kids, (only more modern and less wholesome), who make up the cast, right down to the awesome Judd Nelson cameo as Head Master. The flaw (which is minor) is that it seemed to go hardcore in referencing the 80's high school flick but sadly no real dialogue reverb from the movie, what - not one kid could have found a way to declare "I wanna be just like you. I figure all I need, is a lobotomy and some tights". Okay, I know new decade , new social commentary. The film does have some very awesome quotable moments that I loved, my fave "I don't worship the devil, I just promote him". The cast where killer in their role and all had more than enough back story and depth of personality to bring the characters to life. I did want a bit more bravado, overt-expression from a couple of the characters. I thought they where more subdued than they should have been, but still the acting was stellar. Plus a hot cast can hardly ever go wrong. The movie's "spooky" element was a nice premise to keep the plot stimulated, (remember I am not giving any details away here), which seemed to put the kid's paranoia in overdrive, and the ending twist was cool. Although it almost came off as lame, thank god it was the ending, and not revealed earlier or the film would have failed, much like "Cry Wolf". The effects and gore are there but not really allowed to be the focal point of the moment which is kind of a bummer but still it didn't detract from the movie. "Bad Kids Go To Hell" is a fun, dark satire on High School life as well as basic social discourse that we all have to endure. Plus the subtext of how, based on generation gap and over extended lives, adults tend to view life and young people with a very distorted view outside of the reality that teens or young people in general experience (and vice versa). All in all this film is pretty excellent and a great addition for fans of 80's throwbacks or contemporary American movies, although technically it isn't a horror film it does have some pretty thrilling moments in true Draconian fashion. The real meat of the story lies with the way they reveal how each kid got sent into detention. The flashback is totally 90's "here is how…" stylization. Plus for some reason I got an early Rodriquez vibe from the film.